3 Reasons Led Zeppelin Won’t Write New Songs
Rumour has it that the venerable members of Led Zeppelin might record some new material in the wake of their November reunion show.
Here’s what Jimmy Page apparently said to a Canadian newspaper:
The veteran rock band’s guitarist Jimmy Page said he would be “really surprised if there wasn’t”.
“We’re musicians – as we’re playing we’ll probably be coming up with all manner of things,” he told Canadian newspaper The Winnipeg Sun.
“That will be fun. Let’s do the O2 show, shall we? And then we’ll speak to you afterwards,” added the musician.
I don’t doubt that they’ll probably jam a little, but new Led Zeppelin material is highly unlikely – for a number of reasons:
1. They’d be dishonoring John Bonham’s death
Every fan of Led Zeppelin knows the band’s final statement by heart: “We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.”
Despite having Jason Bonham on board, anything more than a one-off reunion would be an affront to the statement they made back then.
2. Lackluster New Material Would Damage The Led Zeppelin Back Catalogue
Jimmy Page’s solo album, Outrider was a major flop. I bought it out of loyalty but haven’t listened to it since. The Page and Plant records were good, but they knew better than to try to follow in the footsteps of classic Zeppelin – Unledded gave old classics an ethnic twist while they tried an alternative approach on Walking Into Clarksdale.
If they were to release new material now and it wasn’t up to the standard of classic Zeppelin, it would put a stain on their career worse than the Song Remains The Same video.
3. How Would The Music Sound?
It would be extremely lazy for Zep to return to their earlier 1969 sound, not to mention slightly exploitative. Would they follow on from In Through The Out Door-era sounds? Or would they go for a new sound altogether?
I suppose that raises the question of “do we want new material”? As Page knows, the value in Led Zeppelin is the strength of the back catalogue. People will want to hear Black Dog and Dazed And Confused live on stage.
Apprehensive And Excited
While I’d be worried that a new Led Zeppelin release might cast a shadow over their back catalogue, there’s a bit of a buzz about what they might come up with. They’re still awesome musicians, and Plant and John Paul Jones continue to release great music, albeit without the immediacy of their Led Zeppelin work.
What about the readers out there – how would you feel about some new songs from Zeppelin?
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If they got together with Jason or whomever and recorded new music, it would not be “continuing as they were” so it would not dishonor John Bonham at all (I suspect John Bonham would have wanted then to carry on, especially if his son were there at the drums. Besides, what friend would banish his friend Robert to playing crap as bad as Mighty Rearranger with geeks like Justin Adams!).
Obviously, they’d have to put together music that worked. The only post-Zeppelin solo material that sounded nearly as good as LZ was John Paul Jones’ work. Put him in a rhythm section with Jason Bonham and the other two will be inspired again to produce good music. This is the key. They can and SHOULD do it.
I want to call bogus on this.
1. They’d be dishonoring John Bonham’s death.
Bonham himself would be honored, especially with his own son behind the kit.
2. Lackluster New Material Would Damage The Led Zeppelin Back Catalogue.
Outrider was awesome. The Page/Plant releases had one problem: no John Paul Jones. All of Jones’s releases have been exceptional. Plant has the only releases that are suspect… and I still like them all. And different people have different opinions. What you may find as lackluster may be absolutely incredible to me and others. And teh back catalogue will never be damaged. Zep’s music speaks for itself; it’s timeless.
3. How Would The Music Sound?
Who knows? What if they roll back to Presence and come out with more heavy music? Or what if they decide on some hard-rocking blues? Or what if they decide to go beyond Kashmir and No Quarter and delve deeper into Progressive/Symphonic?
We won’t know unless it happens. BUt I do know one thing. Page, Plant, Jones, and Jason Bonham? If they decide on new material, it will sound good. All the elements are there (yes, ALL the elements). Now that they’re working together, the question is not “will it be good,” but “will it happen?”…
OK, I’ll just play the devil’s advocate here.
1. If they would be dishonoring John Bonham’s death by continuing to play together, then surely the Bonham family would object. Oh wait, a direct descendant of John Bonham is involved with Led Zeppelin these days! OK, forget about that argument then.
2. Led Zeppelin hasn’t ever put out any lackluster material (except, in my opinion, “Southbound Saurez”). If they collaborated on something new today, what makes you think it would be lackluster? So what if you didn’t like Outrider; that wasn’t much like Led Zeppelin, was it? You sound dazed and confused.
3. As for that 1969 sound, why would they go after recreating a sound that is almost 40 years old? I think Walking into Clarksdale was the modern-day continuation of how Led Zeppelin would have sounded had it continued — albeit lacking, of course, the influence of a Bonham and a Jones (I take that back; it did have a Jones on it, no relation). The closest we got to howlers on that album were the title track and “Sons of Freedom.” We did get beautiful “Blue Train” and the sultry “Heart in Your Hand.” These songs, to me, show that great things happen when these guys collaborate, and I’ll say the same thing about Page’s two collaborations with Jones on the Scream for Help soundtrack. Lots of time has passed, and these guys are experienced musicians and songwriters. If they do come up with something, it’ll be much better than we bloggers could write.
OK, back to blogging!!
At this point in time there is nothing but speculation. Jimmy Page is not giving any direct answers, although he is hinting at the possibility of doing some new material. Keep in mind, Robert completely denied this whole thing would even be happening several months ago, and it seemed unlikely with Robert’s album with Alison Kraus coming out next week…. has anything been announced as far as a Krauss/Plant tour? (If there was a Zep tour, would she open with Plant joining her for a few songs? Would they then have her come out to sing “Battle of Evermore?”)
I’m letting my mind wander here, it’s hard not to being a diehard Zepaholic for nearly all my life, despite the fact that they broke up when I was two years old….
I wouldn’t deny the possibility that they might decide to see if they can get some of that old magic back. I would love to have heard “Walking Into Clarksdale” if it included JPJ….I think the album is fantastic but the biggest thing missing on that album is how Bonham and Jones had a remarkable ability to make transitions between two different sounding parts of the same song and make them smoother than a freshly laid layer of ice in the TD Banknorth Garden prior to hockey season. Imagine how much better the transition between the verses and chords would have sounded if you had the rhythym section of Led Zeppelin playing on “When the World was Young.”
There were a lot of elements of magic on that album but it definately was missing something….and I think we all know what that something was. And I think JPJ with a Bonham will be better than neither one of them….no matter what, some people will not like it if they do, and some will. If the music critics hate it though, and the fans buy it up, then they will be right back on track just like the old days. We’ll see what happens, but until then, specualtion is only speculation. If the Boston Red Sox go to the World Series, then my bet is that there will be new Led Zeppelin songs.